Measurements of recirculating region, outer shear layer and inner shear layer in the near wake of an annular jet have been carried out with a 3-D LDV system. Mean velocity, turbulent intensity, and the Reynolds shear stress profiles are obtained. The length of recirculating region normalized by the center body diameter is found to be independent of exit velocity and to increases with decreasing center body diameter. It is also found that the position of merging point moves downstream with increasing diameter ratio (ratio of outer diameter to inner diameter). The turbulence is substantially anisotropic; along the centerline, for example, the radial turbulent intensity is much larger than the axial turbulent intensity and the radial profiles of axial turbulent intensities are much different from those of radial and tangential turbulent intensities. The locations of zero shear stress do not coincide with those of zero mean velocity gradient. In the recirculating region, skewed velocity probability distribution is found and near the location of zero axial mean velocity, bimodal velocity probability distribution is measured.